A Day Trip, and No More?

Last week Saturday, June 24, was the annual Galesburg Railroad Days in Galesburg, IL. Since 2021, it has become an annual trip that Dad and I make for a fun day of trains. We left home early Saturday morning and made the three-hour drive to get in line to enter the model train show.

Shortly after entering the college field house, a ticket number was called for the door prize. As dad looked at his ticket, the announcer red the same thing he was seeing. Therefore, we returned to the entrance to claim our prize, a full loop of track, controller, and short train set. It looked similar to what some people have around Christmas trees and is a great starter for those new to the hobby.

All week had been very warm in Iowa with Saturday not any different. The forecast for Galesburg that day was sun, thunderstorms, and a high of 91°. As we roamed around the building looking through various vendors, the heat in the crowded, non air-conditioned building continued to rise. After nearly two hours of looking at model trains, and carrying around our door prize, we purchased a couple good deals and departed.

Instead of returning on the route we had came, Dad thought it would be fun to go through Ft. Madison, IA. I liked the thought of watching trains in the river city, so we started to navigate to the town, with a very sparse map. Using our compass and guessing our approximate location, Dad picked roads that were going the correct direction. Unfortunately, my nearly 30 year-old van does not have good air conditioning. As we traversed very rural roads with nothing in sight except fields, I continued to be on the border-line of overheating.

It took nearly two hours to navigate the 70 miles between the two cities, but we made it. Our first stop was to watch a train we had followed into town. Doing so, we were also seen on Virtual Railfan's Fort Madison railcam and received an alert from my uncle of sighting us. Next, we found a local ice cream shop where I gladly ate a dish of plain chocolate ice cream to try to cool down. We stayed in the railroad magnet for about an hour before starting our remaining two hours home.

Finally, about halfway home, we ran into the thunderstorms we knew were coming. The downpour of rain sometimes made driving a challenge, but it provided a welcome decrease in temperature. After several hours of being too hot, it was nice to cool down. Unfortunately, my nearly healed final pressure sore did not fair well and nearly doubled in size. Therefore, some fun outings I had in mind for this summer have been delayed and will likely be canceled.

Living the quad life has challenges in many directions. I'm thankful I was able to spend time with Dad on a hobby we both enjoy. However, I should have been better prepared to deal with weather conditions and check my body more carefully before many hours in my chair. I do now have two more model train cars on my track and a kit to use in some way. Now, I look forward to a slow week for outings and more recovery at home.